FILCOLS Joins Partners in QC's Inclusive White Cane Month
Celebration for Readers with Print Disabilities
In support of making books
accessible to those with a print disability, Regina Reyna "Reg" V. Pastor, membership officer of
the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS), addressed
participants at the Quezon City executive hall during the White Cane Month
event on August 14.
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| Reg Pastor explains the advantages of being a member of FILCOLS. Photo by Shai Gondra. |
“Copyright is very important for creators,” said Pastor before the
group composed of the visually impaired and their guardians, authors,
publishers, and QC government staff. “The authors must be properly recognized
like giving proper attribution and just remuneration if their works are used on
a large-scale like photocopying and digital copying inside institutions.”
“For FILCOLS we protect the reproduction rights of authors so if
you have a book, you may join us. Membership is free,” she added.
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| Candy Gourlay shares how she got rejected many times as a Filipino author in the UK. Photo by Shai Gondra. |
Award-winning author Candy Gourlay supported Pastor’s invitation
and said she is also a member of a similar copyright society in the United
Kingdom. The London-based author talked about her writing life and gave away
CDs of her work “Tall Story” for the Quezon City Public Library.
White Cane Month is a national celebration made possible by RA
6759, a law crafted during the presidency of Corazon Aquino.
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| Candy Gourlay with the lucky participants who each received a copy of her book. Photo by Shai Gondra. |
The law aims to “promote and protect the physical, moral, and
social well-being of all handicapped persons, such as the blind, and to
undertake studies on specific causes of the high percentage of blind people in
the Philippines.”
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| QC executive hall with participants celebrating White Cane Month. Photo by Shai Gondra. |
FILCOLS is one of the groups tapped by Wowie Catabijan, FILCOLS trustee and Kahel Press officer, to coordinate the event's
organization to celebrate White Cane Month. The other groups are Kahel Press,
Bookshare Philippines, the Philippine Blind Union, and the Persons with
Disability Affairs Office of the Quezon City Government.
To view more photos, please click the link to Kahel Press FB below:
The authors allow the reposting of the unaltered article along with photos provided the following is included at the end:
Text by Alvin J. Buenaventura. Photos by Shai Gondra. For more information, please visit http://filcols.blogspot.com
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